The first thing I realized is that I like to write about reading. I do it anyway, on my goodreads account (feel free to friend me), but I don't do it that often. With this, I've been writing almost every day. However, I write when I finish a book. During the school year, my school expects students to write about their reading five days a week. I think, now that I've been doing some pretty intensive writing about reading, that we should cut back on that. I can't imagine that I would have that much to say about a book that I'm only 20 pages into. I can see myself keeping post-its or marginal notes (a practice I employ anyway) throughout a book to keep track of major ideas I want to highlight later. However, I can only see myself doing extended writing when I've finished the book and I feel like I actually have something to say. Otherwise, writing about reading becomes an exercise in making things up.
Which brings me, more or less, to my second point. This requires some background. I started Getting Near to Baby, by Audrey Couloumbis, on Thursday. My reading was interrupted by belly dancing, followed by baby-sitting my nephew. So I picked it up again on Friday. Only I didn't pick it up until after I'd slept in late, gone to the gym, checked out every page on the internet ever, and tried on various outfits for that evening's night out. I read four pages yesterday. Today, my nephew is once again being baby-sat (he's napping now, thankfully), so I haven't done much reading. When he took a marathon nap this morning, I spent the entire time thinking that I'm supposed to be reading, rather than just getting lost in the eyes of a sleeping infant. But because I was suddenly "supposed to" I didn't really want to do it anymore. I read because I like to, not because I have to. I can have a pile of books as assigned reading, but I don't want to read those until I've read my "for pleasure" book to my satisfaction.
I think what I'm realizing is that I need to get out of my students' way when it comes to getting "pleasure" reading done. I'm lucky that my students are young enough that we don't assign them tons of other readings that need to get done, so there's no reason they can't do their reading every night. But I need to let them be in charge of it. I usually don't try to mandate much, but I do mandate a "reading log," in which they record how long they read for, and how many pages they read in that time. I check it every morning with their homework. However, I think I need to stop. I think I'll let them be in charge of that for themselves. I don't keep a reading log for myself, I just note how long it took me to finish a book. I'm a reflective reader, and I notice if I've stopped reading for a period of time so I can remedy that.
In thinking about next year, I'd rather have my students set up their own reading goals, much like I have done for myself on goodreads. I planned on reading 60 books this year (I was on the fence about whether or not children's books will count, but I've been counting them this summer, so I'm going to blow past that number). When I finish a book, I usually write a review of it, but I don't do it if I don't feel strongly about the book, or if I feel like I don't have anything new to say. I can see myself doing this kind of work with my students. They can set their own reading goal (with a few parameters), then keep track of their reading themselves. I'll know if they are reading because of my conversations with them. I don't need to beat them over the head with the need to read: they'll read because there is something innately pleasurable about it.
Now if only I could motivate myself to finish this book without feeling like it's something I'm "supposed to do."
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